There's more to it than that - the requirements include "demonstrating knowledge of the video game rating system, creating a schedule balancing gaming with schoolwork and chores, and learning to play any new video game that is approved by a parent, guardian or teacher," and there's another pin for doing more requirements on top of that, such as installing a video game system, helping a friend with a game by creating a little customized strategy guide, or playing an educational game. Also, apparently the belt things are different from a full-fledged merit badge.Of course, there is a girl scout badge that is supposed to be analogous, but it's about TV instead, because everyone knows girls don't play games, and the scouts like to play to stereotypes instead of encouraging us to break them. (Speaking from personal experience - I was a girl scout for many years. Maybe the boy scouts are better about that.)

After earning the belt loop, a Cub Scout can aim for the pin. There's something like 40 belt loops the boys can earn, which leads me to wonder how they would all fit on one belt.

(Cub Scouts do not work on merit badges like older Boy Scouts, they have belt loops and pins under the Cub Scout Academics and Sports Program. As Webelos, in fourth and fifth grade, they work on earning pins that are like an intermediate step before merit badges.)

I have 2 kids, one in cubs, the other in scouts in Australia. Neither od their handbooks have badges for anything even remotely similar to video games. They seem to much more favour citizenship and outdoorsy type skills.

Belt loops are for Cub Scouts - boys in grades 1 - 5. They are part of the Sports and Academics program, which does include many sports; also includes categories like citizenship and wildlife conservation. The video game award does stress family involvement and awareness of game ratings.......

Boy Scouts are not the same as Cub Scouts, Cub Scouts is for younger boys. Me thinks that Grumpy was never in either, otherwise he would know the difference. So anyhow my son when he was 15 saved the neighbor (who ultimately drank himself to death) from bleeding out as he cut himself. The 911 and the pressure on the wound type of save, not the repent heathen save. So I said I was proud of him, his reply Dad , after all those years in Scouts what did you think I would do. But alas at 15 he no longer wanted to be a scout as it wasn't cool. If he only knew how cool it really was.

In all actuality, what the cub scouts have to do to "get" that badge is logical. If I remember correctly and if it hasn't changed, it is about learning to use the video games in moderation and choosing age appropriate games.

Ha, ha. At first blush it is a little shocking, but suppose it's a positive in learning how to deal with just another facet to partake in this American Life with a somewhat conformational and healthy attitude.

My mother was both a den mother and a brownie leader. The world of video games has swept her by because it has too fast of a technological turnaround, but remember how proud that the early photos in our family were taken on her Brownie box camera and developed in Pop's dark room by himself, and when I opted to get a ham radio operator license for a physics project.

Seriously, in Scouts I had more opportunities for divergent activities than many other single focus-organizations (i.e. church groups, school honor society, science fair, band): winter glacier camping, long-distance biking, sports and arts training and performance, visiting national parks by train (Denali, et al), photography, socialization skills, volunteering in school, hospital, etc. even flight simulator training at Elmendorf AFB, to name only a few activities in the 11 years involved.

I might find involvement with American Girl dolls a little disconcerting nowadays, but I did earn a hostess badge where I learned among other 'skills' how to make petit fours, and flap hotcakes a fundraiser pancake breakfast, (not just something folks might choose to find themselves more involved in, let's say, a different sort of venue such as catechism class, or 4-H).

reminds me of when a teacher recommended to my parents getting a nintendo to improve eye hand coordination because i wasn't as athletic as other kids in Phys Ed. I am still a Klutz and remember thinking that it wouldn't work.

Video games? Hmmm. My boys are in Royal Rangers (similar to scouts). At the last awards ceremony, one of the kid's badges included Firearm Safety, Advanced Marksmanship, BB Gun, and Hunter Safety. He already had Knife & Hawk (learning to accurately throw tomahawks & knives). No video games :)

My son loved video games. Wanted to make video games. Now he is pursuing his PhD in computer sciences specializing in AI and neural nets. As a grad student he helps his advisor develop the coding for predator drones.

Welcome to my whining!

This blog is entirely for entertainment purposes. All posts about patients may be fictional, or be my experience, or were submitted by a reader, or any combination of the above. Factual statements may or may not be accurate.

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